Abstract
A central challenge to understanding the ecology of migratory animals stems from their dependence on environmental conditions and resources spread across vast spatial scales (Webster et al. 2002; Martin et al. 2007). By definition, migrants inhabit not only the two worlds of breeding and nonbreeding grounds (sensu Greenberg and Marra 2005) but also diverse migratory routes and stopover locations between those worlds (Faaborg et al. 2010; Bayly et al. 2018). The study of animal migration and movement ecology has experienced a renaissance over the past two decades spurred by innovations that help tackle this central challenge, including advances in tracking via satellite-based (e.g., Argos, global positioning system [GPS], and ICARUS systems), cellular-based, position or light-level logging (e.g., GPS logger, geolocator), and tag technology (for reviews, see Wikelski et al. 2007; Bridge et al. 2011; McKinnon and Love 2018). These innovations and associated data portal initiatives (Movebank: Kranstauber et al. 2011; Wikelski and Kays 2012) have enabled new insights into the movement patterns of migratory animals worldwide. Such technological advances give unprecedented access to the annual cycle of many migratory species (Bayly et al. 2018; Cohen et al. 2018), although they have limitations, related mainly to the relatively large size of satellite- and cellular-based tags (>5 g) and the necessity of recapturing individuals to retrieve logging tags (Bridge et al. 2011; Kays et al. 2015). More traditional very high or ultrahigh frequency transmitters and their digitally encoded descendants (Taylor et al. 2017) remain as the primary option for tracking small-bodied migratory animals on the move, particularly when used in the context of collaborative or cooperative automated telemetry (Bridge et al. 2011; Kays et al. 2015; Taylor et al. 2017). Our objectives are to advance the collective goal of studying the ecology of migratory animals by using this collaborative approach and to stimulate further research that illuminates animal movements across the Americas. Specifically, we 1) document and encourage the filling of infrastructure and research gaps within an expanding automated telemetry system in North America that is available to study the movement ecology of small migratory animals and 2) highlight the strategic position of Florida as a bridge between the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States and between North and South America via the Caribbean. Our comments focus on birds because that is our primary study system, although these principles pertain more generally to flying migratory species including bats and insects. Although we share common goals with a broad array of colleagues, throughout this paper the word “we” refers specifically to the authors (i.e., the viewpoint of two collaborating researchers of avian migration).